A tale o’ women burning

Dittays kept of their wrang dein

And the magic they were churning

Janet Wishart was one accused

A fisherman he did say

“I lay bedsick for a month cos o’ her”

Mair like oor lazy to see the day

Janet stood up to her brother in law

She’d seen him beating his wife

So he claimed she’d put a spell on a dug

That pit him in fear o’ his life

Janet’s neighbour got in on the game

Accused her of makin’ the hoose shak

And to add final insult to injury

Folk decided to use a different tack

Her peer son Thomas was also accused

They said he presided o’er a meeting

At the Castlegate and Mercat fish cross

Wi the lassies duncing and fleein

Under the divils guiding haun

They dunced and played instruments to their best

With Thomas the ringleader, hittin Katherine Mitchell

Cos she couldn’t keep up wi the rest

On the 17th of February it was decided

Mother & son baith did the divil’s dealings

And they would both be burned alive at the stake

Can you imagine how they would have been feeling?

11 pounds and ten shillings is how much is cost

That’s what the record shows

For peat, tar barrels, to end twa folks lives

O’er flames and reed hot coals

And what was to become of the rest o’ the family

Janet’s husband and daughters they were banished

Cast oot fae Aberdein, the place they belong

But instead they were telt to vanish

So the next time you’re in the Castlegate

Drinking and duncing without a thought

Think a those peer folk that stood afore ye

And mind you da get caught!